To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie — The Patron

To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie is a duo who's name sounds like it would make a great title for a Crass or Flux of Pink Indians reunion album. The band's website, rather than serving as a typical band site, is a humorous if dry social critique on consumerism, corporate culture and blind conformance. In concept, it's not unlike Radiohead's commentary on the subject, in that it provides the information in the form of the first person view of the hypnotized consumer. It's an increasingly valid point, in this age of widespread public indifference. It's hard not to approach the subject without some measure of anger and resignation, and To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie do so with a good measure of both.

The Patron is purportedly a loose concept album based on the idea of "an underlying love story between two merging corporations", which intends to "capture the raw sentiment of isolation, profound discovery, and morbid betrayal". The theatrical concept might indicate that the story is tackled with a sense of humor, and perhaps some drama, but the album unfortunately falls a bit flat in both departments. The music is mostly fairly harsh, though at times it relaxes into some dreamy semi-ambient patches. It shares somewhat similar terrain with the late eighties 4AD production style, with the application of ultra echo reverb, augmented by loads of effects. But TKAPB are way more harsh, often layering sheets of shrill distortion atop this milieu.

The arrangements run the gamut from sing-songy gothic tunes to neo-Trip Hop to warped electronic pop. What's missing are truly engaging tunes. The nursery rhyme vocalising, which can be intriguing if used sparingly, begins to sound a bit lazy, and, perhaps even more importantly, the duo (guitarist/vocalist Jehna Wilhelm and Mark McGee on electronics and sound manipulation) don't come across as an integrated unit. It sounds as if each are doing their own thing, rather than working together to make a cohesive whole. Kranky is a very good record label, and hopefully To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie will get there with the next one.